West Pokot County Governor John Lonyangapuo has decried the shortage of teachers in the County saying the situation is affecting education standards. He said the County has a staggering deficit of 55%.
Speaking while launching a strategic plan for Kamito Secondary school, Lonyangapuo said the current shortage may affect national results. “It’s better we have many teachers than structures, pupils can learn under trees with the help of trained teachers and excel,” he added.
He said residents had embraced education and many children are yearning to get educated, noting that the Education Ministry should reveal the true state of matters on the ground. “The County Teachers Director should submit the correct statistics about the teachers’ shortage so that the problem can be addressed immediately.”
He said an educated society will not associate itself with retrogressive cultures like cattle rustling and female genital mutilation, and he urged parents to release their children and especially girls to go to schools.
“Our society has been branded as a backward community, thus we the elected leaders have decided to change this notion and it will take all of us to change it,” said Lonyangapuo.
He said parents from marginalized Counties are forced to pay teachers to help their children who are in public schools to be able to compete with their brothers and sisters in private schools.
He also asked the Teachers Service Commission to allocate more slots to marginalized Counties when recruiting new teachers to enable them compete with others nationally.
